Reading Dr. Moss' article "Hip-hop night education" (Sept. 30) made me think (which, if you ask my friends, is something I do not do nearly as much as I should).
I've never really thought of grinding as a social interaction. I mean, it seems obvious, but I'd always seen the party or the dance or Hip Hop Night itself as the social interaction, and grinding just as something that follows naturally from it. And Dr. Moss is right, it's easy; it's the easiest dance move ever. It's the most physically intimate dance there is, but there's no real emotion to it. You just press yourself up against your partner's body and sway to the beat of the song. Until you end up making out with your partner (which is usually the endgame for both students), you can't even see their eyes.
That's why it's popular — there's no need to get to really know the person if it's just some random drunk kid at Hip Hop or Fever, no need to wrap yourself up in who your partner really is, in all their perfections and imperfections. You just fly past all those messy complexities that come along with it and just go straight to physical satisfaction.
It's cheating. It's skipping the best parts — those small moments, those quick glances, those subtle touches and I really don't want to miss any of that. I want to get to know the girl I'm interested in, and I want her to feel the same way. That sounds a lot more appealing to me than some drunken make-out session, surrounded by hundreds of other students I barely know, with someone I may not talk to again.
When my friends ask me if I'm planning on "getting some" when we go out, I kind of cringe. Not because it wouldn't be physically satisfying, but because I want something a little deeper than that. I'm looking for something a bit more meaningful than a one-night relationship, and I wish I had realized that sooner. The freshmen at Hip Hop Night will probably come to realize it too, eventually.
Okay, good talk.
Peter Teneriello
senior
off campus
Oct. 3
